Brilliant Barcelona and Lionel Messi Made Manchester United Look Ordinary

Barcelona's emphatic 3-1 victory against Manchester United in the Champions League final served up footballing justice and a feast for the neutrals.

Barca came, they passed and they conquered. It was yet another exhilarating display from a team who will rightly be placed alongside the best of all time after lifting their second European title in three seasons.

Pep Guardiola's men were sharper of body and mind, and in Lionel Messi delivered the undisputed best player in the world at the peak of his powers—scything through the hapless opposition as he might a group of tired reserve team players in a kickabout.

Mesmeric and Messi will be twinned many times over the next few days. And rightly so. The little Argentine was unplayable at Wembley, and Sir Alex Ferguson admitted as much afterwards.

Ferguson opted not to man-mark him, but instead tasked his midfielders to share duties in shackling his influence.

Try as they might, Messi controlled the game from an advanced position and for the second time scored in a Champions League final against United.

United themselves benefited from no such inspiration. Wayne Rooney took his first-half equalizer superbly, but was ultimately too isolated, too often, to make an impact.

How a player of his talent would have flourished in the Barca colours at Wembley, with a foil like Messi to spark off.

Sadly, it was one game too many for Javier Hernandez—the precocious Mexican who has lit up the Premier League this season and been Rooney's brother in arms in attack.

Chicharito barely made a telling contribution all evening, most of which he seemed to spend occupying offside positions.

In midfield, United's pairing of Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs looked rushed in possession and slow trying to get it back. Theirs was the unenviable task of dueling Xavi and Andres Iniesta—and few come out on top in that doubles match.

Ji-Sung Park and Antonio Valencia were both as industrious and committed as you'd expect on the flanks—but neither managed to make inroads going forward and alleviate the incessant pressure on United's goal.

All the while, Barcelona oozed forward with typical class and confidence—threading passes this way and that, and opening up the Premier League champions with an ease that will surely see Ferguson invest heavily in the summer transfer market.

On 27 minutes, Xavi flicked an impudent pass to Pedro, who shot comfortably home to put Barca ahead. United responded through Rooney's instinctive finish, but there was no containing the Spanish champions.

Messi's shot from outside the box made it 2-1 early in the second half, before David Villa's sumptuous curling finish effectively ended the contest on 69 minutes.

The cavalry charge United fans urged on never arrived. Trailing 3-1, they were helpless to shift the momentum and Barcelona simply too good at keeping possession for any team in the world to stand a chance of the kind of comeback United fashioned in 1999.

But while the postmortem into United's defeat will be long and thorough, it's hard to imagine anything they could have done to stop Barcelona in this kind of mood. It's hard to imagine what any team could have done.

Unless somebody comes up with an answer soon, Guardiola's greats will rule for a decade.